It was rewarding to receive a very positive mid-term progress report, with particularly favorable feedback on collaboration, multidisciplinary research, early-career investigator participation, and on both the numbers of activities and countries involved in the Action.

“MI-NET shows an excellent progress, in line with the outcomes expected after 24 months of implementation. The analysis of the current Action status shows a significant degree of achievement of objectives and outcomes stated in MOU.” [Progress review summary]

Thank you very much for all the contributions to the report, and in particular to Filipa Vance for pulling it all together, and in the words of our Science Officer “managing such a demanding Action”!

The only area of improvement was on dissemination, which forms a substantial part of our activity this year. Katerina Kaouri and Poul Hjorth organised a Science to Business session at the high-profile European Science Open Forum, ESOF 2018, Working Group 2 is currently finalising a Modelling Week Guide, and Working Groups 3 and 4 are compiling a “Mechanisms for enabling industrial maths” handbook, comprising examples of different mechanisms for collaboration and illustrative case studies from MI-NET funded work. Your input to this handbook is very much encouraged, please contact Dr Katerina Kaouri or Hilary Ockendon for more details on how to contribute.

MI-NET’s varied programme of events is on our webpage, and there are still a few STSMs – which need to take place before April 2019 – to be awarded, please encourage your colleagues to apply.

It was great to see so many members of MI-NET at the Management Committee meeting in Limerick in March, and many thanks to MACSI for hosting us. I particularly enjoyed hearing about the wide range of industrial maths activity going on in each country, the slides of which can be downloaded here. Next Spring, the final Management Committee meeting and a celebration of MI-NET will be hosted by the Institute for Mathematical Innovation.
at the University of Bath alongside the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium (BAMC) 24-26 April 2019. This is a particularly fitting event as it typically attracts many PhD students, post-docs, and early-career researchers. The BAMC planning committee warmly invite MI-NET themed mini-symposia submissions, and contributions to the poster session. Calls will open later in the Autumn, with more details to be circulated as they become available.

As I have recently resigned from the University of Bath, I am pleased to let you know that our Vice-Chair, Prof Dietmar Hoemberg, and I have swapped roles for the final months of the MI-NET grant. Many thanks for all the hard work you are doing in championing industrial maths in your countries, and looking forward to seeing you in Bath in April!